Ring: The worst wearable ever?

There was plenty of hype surrounding Ring by Logbar following its bumper crowdfunding success on Kickstarter.

Raising over $880,000 and described by its makers as “like magic, allowing you to
control anything you want, by wearing it on your finger,” it was claimed that:
“You can send texts, control home appliances, and even pay your bills — all at
once and in a flash.”

Snazzy Labs Ring review

Oh dear. And the SnazzyLabs reviewer didn’t
hold back either in a YouTube video that's now been viewed more than a million times, and is titled "Worst Product Ever Made".

“It is the most inconvenient, useless piece of
hardware and software that I have ever seen,” he said.

“I would not wish my worst enemy the curse of having to use
this product, it’s absolutely horrible.

"Stay far away from this, it will
destroy your life.”

CEO hits back

Tech in Asia spoke
with Takuro Yoshida, the CEO of Tokyo-based Logbar to get his side of the story
and there’s some definite straw-clutching going on.

“By the time we launched our Kickstarter, we
were on the seventh or eighth version,” he said. “Yes, it was huge, but it got
smaller each time.

“I have a lot of web and mobile app experience,
so when there’s a bug I can fix it right away. But with hardware, it can take
weeks to fix one problem.

“It was very, very hard and we faced a lot of
obstacles – but we made a real product. We know it isn’t perfect, but it’s
real.

“You need practice to use it, and we also
realised that we need to publish more information about how to use it
correctly. It’s hard to explain by video or words, and I wish I could show
people how to use it properly face-to-face.”

So there you have it. It is real and if the
company CEO could personally come round and show every user how to use it
properly, then it’d be $269 well spent.

Crowdfunding dangers

Ring, in theory, was a great idea but
highlights the pitfalls that even a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign
can fall foul of.

While an idea may potentially seem game-changing - that's all it really is: potential. Successful execution of a consumer tech device is a
very tricky business indeed, and even huge corporations with massive R&D budgets regularly screw up.